I'm profoundly uncomfortable writing this review. This film had a lot going for it - great idea, some good-to-great acting, solid production values - but by the end it devolves into a serious disappointment.
Young gay man overseas, doing his art and apparently happy and healthy, gets visited by his best friend and best friend's younger brother. Young gay man and younger brother discover chemistry together one evening. Older brother finds out, gets upset and essentially rapes/abuses young gay man, then tells him to stay away from his younger brother.
There's no hint of any of this homophobia lurking in their friendship up to this point, no clue this is going to go south like this. That might have worked, except that our young gay man is utterly consumed by his love (obsession) with younger brother, even following them back to LA to try to see him, even putting his life at risk with his former-friend-now-raging-homophobe in his attempt to talk to younger brother (and gets assaulted and beaten again for his pains.) At one point young gay man tells a friend that he has a history of falling in love with straight men and it doesn't work out...
Young gay man returns to his overseas home, he spends some time raging and dancing on the beach, then we leap 2 years forward, younger brother shows up, young gay man says it's all history, then buckles when younger brother insists. End of story.
Huh? We should take away what from this? That being gay means we passively accept homophobic behavior from friends? That we are the helpless victims of our feelings? I'm baffled at the direction and intent of this story, and I'm frankly sorry I watched it to the end.
Young gay man overseas, doing his art and apparently happy and healthy, gets visited by his best friend and best friend's younger brother. Young gay man and younger brother discover chemistry together one evening. Older brother finds out, gets upset and essentially rapes/abuses young gay man, then tells him to stay away from his younger brother.
There's no hint of any of this homophobia lurking in their friendship up to this point, no clue this is going to go south like this. That might have worked, except that our young gay man is utterly consumed by his love (obsession) with younger brother, even following them back to LA to try to see him, even putting his life at risk with his former-friend-now-raging-homophobe in his attempt to talk to younger brother (and gets assaulted and beaten again for his pains.) At one point young gay man tells a friend that he has a history of falling in love with straight men and it doesn't work out...
Young gay man returns to his overseas home, he spends some time raging and dancing on the beach, then we leap 2 years forward, younger brother shows up, young gay man says it's all history, then buckles when younger brother insists. End of story.
Huh? We should take away what from this? That being gay means we passively accept homophobic behavior from friends? That we are the helpless victims of our feelings? I'm baffled at the direction and intent of this story, and I'm frankly sorry I watched it to the end.